First is the CIA assessment released today that asserts that there was
no tangible link between Saddam and al-Zarqawi.
The administration lie:
"He was in contact from Baghdad with Ansar al-Islam in the northeastern part of Iraq. He had a cell operating from Baghdad during that period, as well. So there are clearly ties between Iraq and -- between the regime, Saddam Hussein's regime and al-Qaida," McClellan told reporters.
Before last year's invasion to topple Saddam, the Bush administration portrayed Zarqawi as al- Qaida's link to Baghdad."
Now, the CIA version:
"A CIA report has found no conclusive evidence that former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein harbored Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, which the Bush administration asserted before the invasion of Iraq.
"There's no conclusive evidence the Saddam Hussein regime had harbored Zarqawi," a U.S. official said on Tuesday about the CIA findings."
Second, the administration claim that al-Zarqawi is behind most of the insurgent activity in Iraq. This is dispelled by an unidentified Arab intelligence service.
From here
" Whenever a car bombing, beheading or other spectacular act of violence takes place in Iraq these days, U.S. officials are quick to blame Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, if he hasn't already taken responsibility himself.
But according to an Arab intelligence assessment, al-Zarqawi is not capable of carrying out the level of attacks in Iraq that he has claimed and that American officials have blamed on him."
..."In recent months, he and his supporters have claimed responsibility for scores of suicide bombings, attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces, kidnappings and beheadings of foreigners, and coordinated uprisings in several Iraqi cities.
The reports say al-Zarqawi is likely responsible for the beheadings of American contractor Nicholas Berg and several other foreigners.
But the sheer level of other attacks that he has claimed is not consistent with the number of supporters he has inside Iraq and his ability to move around the country, according to the analysis.
The reports say former members of Saddam Hussein's Baathist regime are responsible -- either directly or by paying others to carry them out -- for many of the attacks, especially sophisticated roadside bombings and ambushes of U.S. troops.
The assessment contradicts many of the Bush administration's statements about al-Zarqawi and his terrorist network. Before invading Iraq in March 2003, the administration argued that al-Zarqawi was a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden."
...
"A senior Arab intelligence official shared the contents of the report with Newsday last week on the condition neither he nor his country would be identified. The intelligence service has a track record of infiltrating terror groups, and it kept a close watch on Hussein's regime for decades.
U.S. officials have erred in focusing so much attention since February on al-Zarqawi as the main force behind the insurgency, according to the reports. The analysis has not been shared with U.S. officials."
So, that's three strikes against the Bush plan/rationale in just the past couple of days.
- Bremer's admission that we were unprepared for the post-invasion situation.
- WMD report this morning.
- No al-Zaqawi/bin Laden/Saddam link. Not even a real al-Zarqawi, master of all Iraqi terror issue. Just more evidence of Team Bush's inability to see and/or tell the truth.